Our #GirlsinBusiness Innovation Bootcamp past Saturday was a huge success. We’d like to take a moment to express gratitude to each and every one of you. Without your valued contributions - all the love, funding, sweat and tears, expertise, mentorship and delicious food - our GIB program would not be possible!
In case you missed Saturday, this is what went down!
On Saturday, we kickstarted our new 2023 edition of GIB. The event occurred at Philippi Village, where we hosted a large yet intimate creative Innovation Bootcamp!
Our Innovation Bootcamp consisted of a number of all-day activities during which 92 girls reflected on challenges for young girls to thrive in their communities and explored business solutions to solve them.
To set the tone we created a safe space for all participants and communicated all rules of the day: The Innovation Bootcamp was all about ideas, solutions and creativity. And there were no bad ideas! Everyone got a chance to be heard when they were discussing various challenges they face in their communities, schools, families as well as individuals. The stories were honest, sincere and heartfelt. And the event was fun and joyful packed with music, reflective practices such as meditation and eurythmy, poetry and great food!
All activities centred around Oribi’s core values and the selected Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 that were developed in 2016. One huge focus of GIB is the 5th Sustainable Development Goal, which is Gender Equality! We strongly believe that focusing on the 5th goal will lead the way to tackle all other goals. We deem gender equity to be one of our core values that leads to a stronger and healthier society.
Teams were formed from the 92 participating girls to closely identify and reflect on the different challenges their respective communities face. The girls had to engage with these challenges through the Equal Opportunities to “Learn, Earn, Eat, Save, Be Healthy, Be Safe, Be Free, Lead and Be Happy,” principle. Analysing root causes and consequences for them, their peers, and society. The idea behind this activity was to unlock the minds of the young people. And help them to better understand societal challenges as well as causes impact they can have. In this way, we sought to inspire the girls to become self-empowerment!
Because we can all make a difference and become changemakers if we put our minds to it, we did so by inviting some learning coaches and motivational speakers who, through their practices and representation, were perfect examples. Through the lens of social entrepreneurship, they offered some approaches and solutions to the various social, economic and cultural challenges our youth experience.
In addition to inspiring speeches by South African female coaches like Princess Lukhele and Thobeka Poswa, our activities focused on early design thinking, systems thinking approaches and showcasing their solutions.
5 teams were selected to enter Step 2 of GIB: Oribi’s GIB Design Sprint. That’s where all 5 winning teams from last Saturday will go out to their communities to have first conversations with potential customers and suppliers. There they will start exploring how to work as a team and the resources that are available so that they can test their solution. They will improve their communication and digital skills to complement their entrepreneurial competencies. There’ll be another exciting showcase event where 2 teams will receive a venture launch grant of up to R20,000 - this time will make it to the final third step of GIB.
Stay tuned and follow our socials for more news about our Girls In Business Program!
One of our learning facilitators had this to say about the day:"I just wanted to reach out and express appreciation for being included in today's programme. It was soo fueling to get to see all the Design Thinking practices and the way in which it was channelled and used to reach a younger audience. And the cherry on top of everything was the excitement and pride ideating brought to the girls. Once again, thank you. It was such a privilege and I am truly grateful."
Written by Dennis Molewa